Speaking of Smith Archives

What Adam Smith Ate: Vinegar

April 23, 2023

In Adam Smith’s household, it’s likely that his mother or cousin, Janet Douglas, would have ensured the cooks pickled vegetables or fermented cabbage or turnips.

Speaking of Smith: Top Ten Posts

April 13, 2023

AdamSmithWorks has been posting Speaking Of Smith posts for over three years. We looked at the most viewed posts and pulled them together for your enjoyment and education.

Dear Adam Smith: What About a Beer?

April 12, 2023

Should "Looking for Simple Pleasures" stop by the pub or keep walking? Adam Smith talks about the heart, the pocket book, and government budgets in his response.

The Use of Pineapple in Society

April 4, 2023

People voted for the Hawaiian pizza and voted against the Hula Burger. They didn’t do so in political referenda or by entering a polling booth on election day. Instead, they “voted” by buying Hawaiian pizzas and not buying Hula Burgers.

ASW Paper Preview: Michelle Schwarze on "Adam Smith on Education as a Means to Political Judgment."

Michelle Schwarze discusses her paper "Adam Smith on Education as a Means to Political Judgment." Some big names get this wrong (Hayek, Friedman, Buchanan). Watch and find out how to get it right.

Taylor Swift's Anti-Hero as a Smithian Anthem

March 20, 2023

Adam Smith says people want to be loved and be lovely. Swift (and all of us) want to be accepted and to be genuinely praise-worthy in her actions and intentions.

Star Trek and Adam Smith: Imitating Captain Kirk

March 9, 2023

"The episode is amusing, but underneath it lies a deep point. When Kirk wants to change a culture, he does not mount a frontal attack. Instead, he plays the game better than anyone else."

Juliette Sellgren on the Smith Questionnaire

March 8, 2023

Sellgren joins us on the Smith Questionnaire to talk about what her impartial spectator looks like, which episodes of her podcast she thinks Adam Smith would like, and much more.

The Continuing Relevance of David Hume’s Musings on Money

March 6, 2023

Although David Hume's essay "On Money," came long before the term “macroeconomics” came into vogue two centuries later, it might well be considered one of the first essays of that genre.

On Knowing Good Character: A Comparison of Adam Smith and Confucius

March 2, 2023

Both Confucius and Smith conceived of good character as being much more than the possession of a single morally good disposition. But the discernment is difficult and shows a difference between the two thinkers.

H.G. Wells should have read Adam Smith: Do the Eloi and Morlocks Trade?

February 28, 2023

"Wells imagines this future without trade by imagining the division of labor becomes so acute that trade is no longer necessary. But, as Smith again would note, Wells has the causality backwards... The division of labor is the result of the impulse to trade, not the cause of trading."

The Impartial Spectator(s) & The Standing Chandelier

February 20, 2023

"Smith seems to embrace the ambiguity, both as a means for us to become better aware of the world around us and as a means to avoid flattening morality down to a list of rules for people to follow"